The latest word to emerge from the hack speaks to this heavenly struggle between art and commerce. According to a report from the New York Times, dozens of studio e-mails regarding Concussion, the Will Smith-led drama reckoning with pro football's head trauma epidemic, reveal discussions between Sony executives, filmmakers, and Smith's representatives on placating potential NFL hostility. The Times says their solution was to alter the script and market the film "more as a whistle-blower story, rather than a condemnation of football or the league."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

In a recovered e-mail from August 6, 2014, Dwight Caines, the president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, made a case for how to position the movie to three top studio executives:

"Will is not anti-football (nor is the movie) and isn't planning to be a spokesman for what football should be or shouldn't be but rather is an actor taking on an exciting challenge … We'll develop messaging with the help of N.F.L. consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet's nest."

(The Times notes that the consultant cited in Caines' e-mail was not an N.F.L. employee, but a third party hired to "deal" with the NFL.)

Keep this in mind: Sony Pictures announced Concussion in June 2014. They wanted to tell the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who, after performing several autopsies on deceased NFL players, asserted that cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy were the result of injuries sustained in the game. In the wake of his discoveries, families pointed fingers, lawsuits were filed, players died, from trauma and suicides allegedly provoked by CTE diagnosis, and other players quit. The NFL denied its connection to the disease, then backed down. In September 2014, the league stated in federal court documents that research showed a third of retired players would develop long-term cognitive problems due to concussions. All the while, Sony was moving forward on Concussion—and with one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. As the only major movie studio without connections to NFL broadcasting, Sony could find Oscar-friendly drama in a controversial conversation. Concussion was a bold move from the first announcement. But, as e-mails show, executives got cold feet.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Several e-mails from summer 2014 allude to major changes in Concussion that would soften the blows towards the NFL. "Unflattering moments" were reportedly deleted or changed. Another e-mail suggested that "most of the bite" was taken out of the film "for legal reasons with the N.F.L. and that it was not a balance issue." After Sony released the trailer earlier this week, director Peter Landsman insisted to Entertainment Weekly that Sony promised him the protection required to make an honest film on the topic. To something of the contrary, he added, "This is not a movie that is intended to take down the NFL or destroy football."

In both interviews and hacked e-mails, those involved with Concussion stress the importance of "accuracy." There was a fear that, when the movie hits theaters this Christmas, fuzzy facts would come under attack. Like last year's Selma, which vocal Lyndon B. Johnson purists chiseled away at for taking creative liberties, a campaign many saw as undermining the film's Oscar chances, Concussion could be susceptible to agenda-driven fact-checking if it didn't play its cards in exactly the right way. Which is why it's a story of a man, not an issue. Apparently.

"At the end of the day, this is a David-versus-Goliath movie about a whistleblower who tells an important truth about an incredibly important thing," Landsman told EW. But definitely not a condemnation of the NFL. Definitely not. Because: show business.